Dick Cheney walks into the Oval Office... "George Herbert Walker Bush! Do you see this phone bill! I guess we are just going to have to turn it off until you can afford to pay it yourself."
The one thing that this system does address on some level is actually printing ballots that you know are needed, and enough to cover your needs.
You say that you know how many to print ahead of time because you know how many people are entitled to vote. Do you really?
1. Registered voter records are incorrect when the ballots are published and shot count an area of the appropriate number of ballots.
2. Someone makes a mistake filling out a ballot and need a replacement.
3. Someone accidentally goes to the wrong precinct.
One plus to Print on Demand is that you can cover for the scenarios in a much more systematic way. The other thing that this could allow for in the future is allowing people to vote at more convenient polling places for them. One of the fundamental systemic problems of the current voting system is that it requires you to show up at a specific polling place, which may not be the most logical place for you to vote depending upon your job, current residence, etc.
In no way is this a perfect solution, but it does open up some possibilities that aren't present in the current system.
Several comments here:
1.) Economies of scale don't really come into play in sparsely populated areas.
2.) "China's huger" Ignoring the wonderful grammar the two countries are for all intents and purposes the same size. Depending on the way the area is figured they are 3rd and 4th in land area. But this is the important thing anyway see below.
3.) The question is more about the deviation of the population. The quirky thing about the US compared to most of the other large countries, Russia to some degree being an exception, is that the vast majority of the country is habitable and more importantly is inhabited. The US population is really spread out. Norway, Sweden, Canada, and even China tend to be focused much more heavily around particular areas of the country.
All of this while important, doesn't excuse the sorry state of broadband connectivity, among many other things, but it is something that does truly need to be considered. But one that should probably be put away until at least the highly dense areas (NY, LA, SF, Chicago, Philadelphia... you get the idea) are at least adequately serviced.
You have to be careful about attacking the theatre owner here. Theatres, to my knowledge and I am open to correction here, as part of their license to show the film open themselves up to the a possible lawsuit from the content owner/distributor/etc. if they are complicit in allowing unauthorized reproductions to me made. Not to mention that the distributor could elect to no longer sell them films to show in the first place effectively destroying their business. You don't want to put the theatre owners in that position.
I am well aware of all of this now, and I do in fact have a TN NAFTA Visa/Work Permit. And though there was a division in Canada, this was in fact the first time that the company had dealt with this.
You missed the general point of my statement though. I admit that not being aware of what needed to be done wasn't a good situation. My point was that at least in my, albeit limited, experience every country has rules like this. Thinking that this is something special where US Immigration was out to target this guy is probably not true in the least bit.
I think this is dead on correct. I have been crossing the US-Canada border on a fairly regular basis recently. There are time when the basically ask me where I am from and wave me on my way and other times when I have felt like I was going through something akin to the Spanish Inquisition.
This in no way means that the times I was given a difficult time that they did anything wrong. It just speaks to the randomness of the immigration process going either direction; because, it has happened going both ways for me.
The company I work for is a parent company of a Canadian company. The Canadian company is taking over a new contract at a large manufacturing plant in Ontario. The Canadian division of my company doesn't have the infrastructure to get the new program on its feet, and as such was bringing in a few people,3 of us to be specific, to get the new people they were hiring up to speed. None of us had any interest in taking Canadian jobs, but the hassle in getting Immigration to understand this was unnerving.
See the problem is you are an elitist, even if you choose not to believe so. You take pride in being one of a few people who has found this special something. That sir is almost the dictionary definition of elitist, feel free to check dictionary.com to see for yourself.
Your earlier example about the hidden lake you found becoming overcrowded is a poor one. There is a very fundamental difference there in that the things that attracted you to that lake, can be changed by the other people. A book or a painting isn't subject to that problem.
I can already imagining the basic response of but all those unknowing people talk about it. Well ignore them, enjoy the beauty for what you find in it, you don't have to like something for the same reason other people do.
I always love seeing or hearing comments such as these. The closed-minded elitism engendered in such comments is honestly pathetic to me. You see it in all sorts of different communities. "If it is popular then it must be crap" is such an inane and useless argument.
Was LOTR cheapened in anyway by more people finding it and coming to truly appreciate it? That is complete rubbish, a work of any sort stands on its own merits not the merits of those who find value in it.
As to Potter, yes the first few books definitely follow a more juvenile bent, but guess what the main characters are kids. The later books take on a darker tones. You are right that it does contain a lot of coming of age elements, but it also contains a lot of classic literary fair also. Acceptance of difference, the power of love and loyalty, the dangers of extremism. Had you actually taken the time to read the books, perhaps you would understand that.
But instead you spill yet more drivel of finding more "shining pearls", but guarding them against other people. Again that is simply a load of shite. If something is a truly great work then you should expose it for the world to see. Would the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel mean anything if they kept it under a tarp? Would Mozart or Beethoven mean something if they were never performed for people to appreciate? If it is truly great it holds up under exposure. The truth of the matter is that more then likely the same percentage of what you regard to be truly good is crap as that which becomes popular. Thinking otherwise just allows you to think better of yourself, stepping on the backs of others and all.
It is a catch-22 for the US. There are two problems you run into with the concept of free-trade, and honestly hit is an across the board problem for a number of countries not just the US.
The two prime areas where lesser developed countries can tend to compete directly with a major power are agriculture and manufacturing. They tend to lag behind in engineering, banking, and other service based industries, mostly for educational or capital reasons.
The problem that develops is that these are two areas that are dangerous for a country to give up. They are both vital to national security. A nation that cannot produce it's enough food to feed itself is always in a dangerous place. Manufacturing, in particular heavy manufacturing, is vital for a country's national security also, in times of war the inability to produce steel or build planes or tanks can lead to a very quick defeat. These two industries are also in a lot of ways the cornerstones of a productive economy. Manufacturing jobs in particular tend to form the core of a middle class in a productive country.
Free Trade in the long term, when everyone gets to a relatively equal standing in economic abilities. The problem is how do you get there? How do you build the abilities of the poor and generally less developed countries while keeping the powerhouses strong also?
Wish I could say I had an answer, but it is a very difficult question.
Personally, I think ignoring laws under the guise of "executive in time of war" is grounds for impeachment. And I'll bet I'm not the only person who feels that way. I will admit that I have a lot of qualms about the program in general, and I don't know what the specific problem with going go the FISA court was. But while you and others might feel that way about the issue, history doesn't truly back you up (see Suspension of Habeas Corpus during the civil war, the Emancipation Proclamation [note: I thoroughly believe this was the right thing to do but its constitutionality when it was written was dubious], Eugene Debs jailing during and after World War 1, Korematsu and the detention of Japanese citizens during World War 2.) The US government in general has long played games with lawas and the constitution during "Times of War" and really this is no different.
Unemployment statistics are not calculated from unemployment benefits. You should look it up at the Census Department and how they calculate it. Try again please.
It isn't just small rural New England and Canada, a good portion of the State of Michigan has been using that basic system. My particular district, which is rural, has had it at least since I began voting, 2000 general election I missed the 1998 one because I was away at school. But I believe most of the state was moving towards the same system. Doesn't mean that there still aren't some problems now and then, but I can't complain about the basic system.
The chief qestion here as the litigation begins to play ut is when do the investors in SCO begin ulling out of what appears ever more strongly to be a losing battle? Or do they continue to just throw good money after bad and accept the loss on what maybe no better then a lottery's chance of winning anything?
I know the begining of your post was in jest. But All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day which is Oct. 30, are way there are to disrupt the pagan holiday of All Hallow's Eve not the other way around. Much like the placement of Christmas around the Winter Solstice festival.
Oh good lord, at least take the time to really find out about something before insulting something. The 80 cores they are talking about are simple floating point cores, not full featured ones like in the Core 2 or AMD64. They were actually throwing out the idea, in as much as anything, as a compliment to IBM/Sony for the ideas the the Cell processor brought forth. The thing that it points more towards is that they are considering different ways of approaching problems then simply tacking more highly complex processors onto the system, which after a point has very questionable merits.
Typical rote indictment of Proposal A. First of all there is still plenty of less expensive housing in and around Ann Arbor, and the teachers are cannot be required to live there by state law. Also, in regards to the original comment, it was referring to school construction which is one of the exceptions to Proposal A, and Ann Arbor is taking advantage of that in building a brand new high school, which of course they have completely mismanaged to the point where it is costing vastly more then they planned and opening a year later.
As for Proposal A itself, it does not completely balance off student spending, and Ann Arbor, in particular, is still one of the better off districts in the state. It wasn't forseen, and is difficult to explain, why education costs have risen faster then inflation, which Proposal A is directly tied to as it is a sales tax. Additionally, a lot of the problems some of the districts, such as Ann Arbor and Detroit, have with money are largely self inflicted by a combination of factors, bloated administration and onerous labor contracts in Ann Arbor and those plus massive excess capacity in Detroit.
The school systems btw are spending more per capita when adjusted for inflation then they have at anytime in history. It is their responsibility to find ways to run themselves more efficiently, which by the way is fairly common in a lot of the private schools in the state which have lower per pupil costs then the public systems, or find new ways to generate more revenue.
*Ugh* Did you even bother to read the explanation of the two technologies? Or did you just decide to make a half-arsed comment to play AMD fanboy?
The Intel product is two dies on one package, aka one socket. There are some issues with this setup, and it will definately have to be shown to be an effective solution, but it isn't even close to some "hack" as you decided to declare.
This is still flawed thinking though, although there are problems with comparing it to all of NASA's operations. His arguement regarding schools falls down around it's ears when you compare the public school system to the vast majority of private schools. These schools manage to provide all of the services that he mentioned while being vastly more expensive on a per student basis then the average public school.
More money = more representation in the candidates votes
You know I know there are a lot of politicians this is certainly true for. But at the same time why do we have to gear the system to the lowest of the low? They will find the way to get their perks regardless, and by doing this you potentially stop a truly good candidate from getting the most support they could.
Slashdot Mirror
Dick Cheney walks into the Oval Office... "George Herbert Walker Bush! Do you see this phone bill! I guess we are just going to have to turn it off until you can afford to pay it yourself."
Unless they came up with some radically cheaper method of producting them this will basically probably require a mortgage to go out and buy.
The one thing that this system does address on some level is actually printing ballots that you know are needed, and enough to cover your needs. You say that you know how many to print ahead of time because you know how many people are entitled to vote. Do you really? 1. Registered voter records are incorrect when the ballots are published and shot count an area of the appropriate number of ballots. 2. Someone makes a mistake filling out a ballot and need a replacement. 3. Someone accidentally goes to the wrong precinct. One plus to Print on Demand is that you can cover for the scenarios in a much more systematic way. The other thing that this could allow for in the future is allowing people to vote at more convenient polling places for them. One of the fundamental systemic problems of the current voting system is that it requires you to show up at a specific polling place, which may not be the most logical place for you to vote depending upon your job, current residence, etc. In no way is this a perfect solution, but it does open up some possibilities that aren't present in the current system.
Several comments here:
1.) Economies of scale don't really come into play in sparsely populated areas. 2.) "China's huger" Ignoring the wonderful grammar the two countries are for all intents and purposes the same size. Depending on the way the area is figured they are 3rd and 4th in land area. But this is the important thing anyway see below. 3.) The question is more about the deviation of the population. The quirky thing about the US compared to most of the other large countries, Russia to some degree being an exception, is that the vast majority of the country is habitable and more importantly is inhabited. The US population is really spread out. Norway, Sweden, Canada, and even China tend to be focused much more heavily around particular areas of the country. All of this while important, doesn't excuse the sorry state of broadband connectivity, among many other things, but it is something that does truly need to be considered. But one that should probably be put away until at least the highly dense areas (NY, LA, SF, Chicago, Philadelphia... you get the idea) are at least adequately serviced.
You have to be careful about attacking the theatre owner here. Theatres, to my knowledge and I am open to correction here, as part of their license to show the film open themselves up to the a possible lawsuit from the content owner/distributor/etc. if they are complicit in allowing unauthorized reproductions to me made. Not to mention that the distributor could elect to no longer sell them films to show in the first place effectively destroying their business. You don't want to put the theatre owners in that position.
I am well aware of all of this now, and I do in fact have a TN NAFTA Visa/Work Permit. And though there was a division in Canada, this was in fact the first time that the company had dealt with this.
You missed the general point of my statement though. I admit that not being aware of what needed to be done wasn't a good situation. My point was that at least in my, albeit limited, experience every country has rules like this. Thinking that this is something special where US Immigration was out to target this guy is probably not true in the least bit.
I think this is dead on correct. I have been crossing the US-Canada border on a fairly regular basis recently. There are time when the basically ask me where I am from and wave me on my way and other times when I have felt like I was going through something akin to the Spanish Inquisition.
This in no way means that the times I was given a difficult time that they did anything wrong. It just speaks to the randomness of the immigration process going either direction; because, it has happened going both ways for me.
That was the point though he wasn't just attending the conference, that is an entirely different discussion.
He was getting paid to do work in the US, and that is a touchy issue going into most countries.
The company I work for is a parent company of a Canadian company. The Canadian company is taking over a new contract at a large manufacturing plant in Ontario. The Canadian division of my company doesn't have the infrastructure to get the new program on its feet, and as such was bringing in a few people,3 of us to be specific, to get the new people they were hiring up to speed. None of us had any interest in taking Canadian jobs, but the hassle in getting Immigration to understand this was unnerving.
See the problem is you are an elitist, even if you choose not to believe so. You take pride in being one of a few people who has found this special something. That sir is almost the dictionary definition of elitist, feel free to check dictionary.com to see for yourself.
Your earlier example about the hidden lake you found becoming overcrowded is a poor one. There is a very fundamental difference there in that the things that attracted you to that lake, can be changed by the other people. A book or a painting isn't subject to that problem.
I can already imagining the basic response of but all those unknowing people talk about it. Well ignore them, enjoy the beauty for what you find in it, you don't have to like something for the same reason other people do.
I always love seeing or hearing comments such as these. The closed-minded elitism engendered in such comments is honestly pathetic to me. You see it in all sorts of different communities. "If it is popular then it must be crap" is such an inane and useless argument. Was LOTR cheapened in anyway by more people finding it and coming to truly appreciate it? That is complete rubbish, a work of any sort stands on its own merits not the merits of those who find value in it. As to Potter, yes the first few books definitely follow a more juvenile bent, but guess what the main characters are kids. The later books take on a darker tones. You are right that it does contain a lot of coming of age elements, but it also contains a lot of classic literary fair also. Acceptance of difference, the power of love and loyalty, the dangers of extremism. Had you actually taken the time to read the books, perhaps you would understand that. But instead you spill yet more drivel of finding more "shining pearls", but guarding them against other people. Again that is simply a load of shite. If something is a truly great work then you should expose it for the world to see. Would the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel mean anything if they kept it under a tarp? Would Mozart or Beethoven mean something if they were never performed for people to appreciate? If it is truly great it holds up under exposure. The truth of the matter is that more then likely the same percentage of what you regard to be truly good is crap as that which becomes popular. Thinking otherwise just allows you to think better of yourself, stepping on the backs of others and all.
But if you turn half of Florida into swamp wouldn't the entire state be swamp?
And if we did convert Indiana into one giant algae pond without saying anything would anyone notice?
Gee only 34,000 square kilometers of algae needed to do this...
It is a catch-22 for the US. There are two problems you run into with the concept of free-trade, and honestly hit is an across the board problem for a number of countries not just the US. The two prime areas where lesser developed countries can tend to compete directly with a major power are agriculture and manufacturing. They tend to lag behind in engineering, banking, and other service based industries, mostly for educational or capital reasons. The problem that develops is that these are two areas that are dangerous for a country to give up. They are both vital to national security. A nation that cannot produce it's enough food to feed itself is always in a dangerous place. Manufacturing, in particular heavy manufacturing, is vital for a country's national security also, in times of war the inability to produce steel or build planes or tanks can lead to a very quick defeat. These two industries are also in a lot of ways the cornerstones of a productive economy. Manufacturing jobs in particular tend to form the core of a middle class in a productive country. Free Trade in the long term, when everyone gets to a relatively equal standing in economic abilities. The problem is how do you get there? How do you build the abilities of the poor and generally less developed countries while keeping the powerhouses strong also? Wish I could say I had an answer, but it is a very difficult question.
Unemployment statistics are not calculated from unemployment benefits. You should look it up at the Census Department and how they calculate it. Try again please.
It isn't just small rural New England and Canada, a good portion of the State of Michigan has been using that basic system. My particular district, which is rural, has had it at least since I began voting, 2000 general election I missed the 1998 one because I was away at school. But I believe most of the state was moving towards the same system. Doesn't mean that there still aren't some problems now and then, but I can't complain about the basic system.
The chief qestion here as the litigation begins to play ut is when do the investors in SCO begin ulling out of what appears ever more strongly to be a losing battle? Or do they continue to just throw good money after bad and accept the loss on what maybe no better then a lottery's chance of winning anything?
I know the begining of your post was in jest. But All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day which is Oct. 30, are way there are to disrupt the pagan holiday of All Hallow's Eve not the other way around. Much like the placement of Christmas around the Winter Solstice festival.
Oh good lord, at least take the time to really find out about something before insulting something. The 80 cores they are talking about are simple floating point cores, not full featured ones like in the Core 2 or AMD64. They were actually throwing out the idea, in as much as anything, as a compliment to IBM/Sony for the ideas the the Cell processor brought forth. The thing that it points more towards is that they are considering different ways of approaching problems then simply tacking more highly complex processors onto the system, which after a point has very questionable merits.
Typical rote indictment of Proposal A. First of all there is still plenty of less expensive housing in and around Ann Arbor, and the teachers are cannot be required to live there by state law. Also, in regards to the original comment, it was referring to school construction which is one of the exceptions to Proposal A, and Ann Arbor is taking advantage of that in building a brand new high school, which of course they have completely mismanaged to the point where it is costing vastly more then they planned and opening a year later. As for Proposal A itself, it does not completely balance off student spending, and Ann Arbor, in particular, is still one of the better off districts in the state. It wasn't forseen, and is difficult to explain, why education costs have risen faster then inflation, which Proposal A is directly tied to as it is a sales tax. Additionally, a lot of the problems some of the districts, such as Ann Arbor and Detroit, have with money are largely self inflicted by a combination of factors, bloated administration and onerous labor contracts in Ann Arbor and those plus massive excess capacity in Detroit. The school systems btw are spending more per capita when adjusted for inflation then they have at anytime in history. It is their responsibility to find ways to run themselves more efficiently, which by the way is fairly common in a lot of the private schools in the state which have lower per pupil costs then the public systems, or find new ways to generate more revenue.
*Ugh* Did you even bother to read the explanation of the two technologies? Or did you just decide to make a half-arsed comment to play AMD fanboy?
The Intel product is two dies on one package, aka one socket. There are some issues with this setup, and it will definately have to be shown to be an effective solution, but it isn't even close to some "hack" as you decided to declare.
This is still flawed thinking though, although there are problems with comparing it to all of NASA's operations. His arguement regarding schools falls down around it's ears when you compare the public school system to the vast majority of private schools. These schools manage to provide all of the services that he mentioned while being vastly more expensive on a per student basis then the average public school.
More money = more representation in the candidates votes
You know I know there are a lot of politicians this is certainly true for. But at the same time why do we have to gear the system to the lowest of the low? They will find the way to get their perks regardless, and by doing this you potentially stop a truly good candidate from getting the most support they could.